Being a somewhat seasoned festival-goer, especially of those in Cornwall, I took the short drive up to the Little Orchard Cider and Music Festival with some trepidation, writes Nigel Pengelly.

With what was my sixth festival this summer (seven if you include the now three-day Masked Ball), I honestly wasn’t too sure what to expect.

I mean, I know what festivals are like – they all steal themes off each other these days; I just didn’t know what kind of people would be there. I just couldn’t stick my glitter on the target audience.

Yet, here is a festival that knows its people well – and those people want a fine, quirky party set to a stomping live soundtrack.

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For this is, and foremost, a cider and music festival – in that order. It’s a proper ‘drink up zee cider’ affair with more than 50 apple (and occasional other fruit) fermented tipples from the staple, house classic Rattler to the aptly named Suicyder weighing in at a hefty 12.7%.

With cider, a good jolly ol’ knees up atmosphere naturally ensues and you’ll find no brain-numbing repetitive beats here – this is a proper live music event. Even the silent disco is mainly rock (at one time one channel was playing Rage Against the Machine while the other blasted out a Red Hot Chilli Peppers classic).

The music programming was probably the best I’ve witnessed at a festival; there was all the right music at the right time and you never thought you were missing anything.

From 1950s crooners to the timeless stomp of The Wurzels and the infectious indie rock of Glaswegians The Fratellis, this was an inspired music roster.

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This is billed as a family festival (unlike a couple of other festivals I went to this summer that definitely weren’t suitable for the under 18s), so I took along that most difficult-to-please attendee of any festival – the mopey teenager and his mates (and an 11-year-old brother).

Yet, they loved it. This is a wonderfully safe environment for teenagers to wander around and explore. All the venues are close to each other, with enough entertainment and activities to garner their attention. From Rattler Olympics (a madcap set of challenges from welly wanging to apple bashing), pig racing and laughing yoga – there was proper schedule of delightfully random sights to savour.

The cider and music festival takes place in September

We didn’t catch it all, the beauty is just wandering into a tent and catching some good music and moving on somewhere else good. My troupe liked the BBC Introducing Stage where a great line-up of up-and-coming as well as established bands played blazing sets.

From headbanging Godstone, the politico-folk of Tamar, the infections nu-reggae of The Hempolics, southern blues of Me & The Devil, the BBC Introducing Stage was always full of good music, good people and good atmosphere.

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The Little Orchard Comedy Hour was also, well, very funny (items billed as comedy can often fall very flat) and perhaps a bit risqué for my entourage but there were warnings – and they’ve probably heard worse on YouTube.

To the main stage and The Wurzels were, The Wurzels. A kind of cider cabaret with sexist banter and rabble-rousing, raucous music from men in their 70s and 80s who thankfully don’t know any better – and totally enjoyable, in a farcical way.

Imperial Leisure is a delight live; an infectious rap-groove and stage show that got the whole tent jumping.

More than 50 varieties of cider were on offer from Cornwall and across the South West

Hayseed Dixie were a good crack, their bluegrass covers of rock standards are truly entertaining but about half-way through we kinda knew what the rest of the set was going to be like. We left for the cheesy tunes of Club Fromage and then onto the silent disco (set in the middle of a cleverly illuminated copse of trees), via the secretive and groovy Grandma’s Front Room – a hideway cocktail bar playing funky tunes hosted by a troupe of flirty grannies and accessed by a wardrobe door, then through a tunnel lined with clothes.

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We enjoyed Biere De Luxe, Moriaty and a storming set from The Fratellis, whom of which to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. That infectious Chelsea Dagger singalong chorus was all that I knew of them, yet their set was pure rock indulgence ending a with a great punk-inspired cover of Runaround Sue.

Being a school night, we sloped off mid-afternoon on the Sunday but there was plenty to come. I particularly wanted to catch Helm and the All Star Band, Hockeysmith and Kernow’s own festival favourites Three Daft Monkeys – but after two nights of partying, the teenagers had worn me out and we all needed our own beds.

I’d come to the Little Orchard Cider and Music Festival again. This is a festival where I can sit and drink cider uninterrupted and hear good music, knowing my sons and their mates are off having fun without the need of a chaperone (one of them even pulled). The organisers of The Little Orchard Cider and Music Festival certainly know the right kind of apples that go into a damn good event.